Participated · Seed · Sep 2025

Ordinal is a gov-tech startup offering an AI research assistant that employs secure retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to surface instant, source-grounded answers from municipal documents, codes, and records. By cutting the time employees spend on information retrieval—estimated at nearly 40 % of a typical work week—the platform aims to boost efficiency, improve decision-making, and strengthen public service delivery. The product has already been deployed in several municipalities, including Sallisaw (OK), Decatur (IN), Lowell (AR), Benton County (AR), La Quinta (CA), Pea Ridge (AR), and Willard (MO), demonstrating early traction and user adoption. Ordinal emphasizes compliance and accuracy by citing verified sources in every response, lowering barriers to adoption in a sector often slow to embrace new technology. The founding team—Jacob Herrington, Nick Spinazze, and Jacob Eubanks—plans to use new capital to expand its customer base, enhance a public-facing chatbot, and add features that further streamline civic operations. Although detailed revenue figures were not disclosed, the company reports a rapidly growing sales pipeline and measurable scaling progress facilitated by investor support. Long-term, Ordinal aims to restore civic trust and shape more efficient, transparent local governments through AI-driven knowledge management.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2024

Empathy Health Technologies is the company behind Sober Sidekick, a free mobile application that connects individuals battling substance-use disorders with a 24/7 peer community, daily motivation, professional help and on-demand AA meetings. The app encourages users to both give and receive supportive messages and leverages an “empathy algorithm” that analyzes behavioral and language patterns to predict relapse risk, automatically triggering outreach when danger signs surface. Sober Sidekick has been downloaded nearly 1.1 million times, serves more than 145,000 monthly active users and has facilitated over 2 million peer interactions; an independent analysis found that five interactions on the platform correlate with a 68 % lower likelihood of relapse. While anyone can download the app for free, the company also signs value-based contracts with commercial and public payers. Revenue details were not disclosed, but Empathy Health intends to build a continuous-care infrastructure that shifts reimbursement from crisis response to relapse prevention. With its newest capital, the firm plans to deepen payer partnerships, enhance its predictive technology, and expand member-support operations, including data-science capacity and care-navigation infrastructure. Founded by CEO Chris Thompson, who drew on his own recovery experience, the company ultimately aims to redefine success in substance-use care by measuring sustained relapse prevention rather than episodic treatment.